


How Long It Takes To Make A Family

by flowersalesman



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe- David Adopts Max, Dadvid Big Bang 2018, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 01:18:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14509341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowersalesman/pseuds/flowersalesman
Summary: Five times Max told David to go away, and one time he asked him to stay.Alternatively: Max and David’s relationship throughout the years.





	How Long It Takes To Make A Family

**Author's Note:**

> this was fun to write though im skeptical of its quality. but who cares. yolo, as they say.
> 
> tbh there's a Lot i could explain about this fic but that's not much fun so i'll stop the notes here

1.

Max’s parents first sent him to Camp Campbell when he was six, and the only reason they waited that long was because that was the youngest age the camp accepted.

During the school year, Max was cheerfully labelled as the “latchkey kid,” the only kid in his grade who carried around a house key clipped to his backpack because neither of his parents were home when he was and he had to unlock the door himself. Usually he was only alone for an hour or two; not long enough for any outsider to get the idea of neglect in their head.

Some days, his parents didn’t come home on time. Whenever that happened Max was forced to skip dinner and go to bed himself, and in the morning he’d get lectured on how he left all the lights in the house on and that he left the TV remote in the couch cushions and really, he’s already four five six years old, shouldn’t he have learned all this by now?

His parents didn’t work the weekends, but as distant as they were they might as well have.

Before most of his time was taken up by school Max was enrolled in daycare. He got dropped off at 6:30 AM and picked up at 8 PM; the first kid in and the last kid out. His parents hated the price. They’d jokingly talk about how they couldn’t wait for the day when he was old enough to take care of himself, about how annoying it was to wake up half-an-hour early just to drop him off, like he wasn’t even there. They never seemed to know that he was there, not unless he was getting blamed for something.

Six was the age where he was old enough to (supposedly) take care of himself for a couple hours at a time, but young enough to still be a worry for any longer than that. Summer vacation was awaited with dread at his household, where where his parents would have to pay for constant childcare.

Luckily, Camp Campbell was cheap, and Max would be out of the house entirely for two and a half months. It was, as far as they were concerned, the perfect option, and on the sheet where they were filling out his information they wrote  _ “making friends”  _ as the camp they wanted him in. They thought that he was shy, anti-social, and had difficulty connecting with people, because that’s how he always appeared to them.

Max had friends. It wasn’t hard for him to go up and start talking to people he didn’t know. His parents just had no idea who he was.

So the boy who first arrived at Camp Campbell was loud, social, and had the vague idea that he was never going to be the most important thing in his parents’ life, though he couldn’t voice that thought if asked.

He was also, objectively, an annoying little shit.

On the first day of camp, he arrived on the bus with all the other children. He was the youngest one there, unsurprisingly. What was supposed to happen after that was head to the dining hall for orientation, led by the two counselors.

Max didn’t even make it that far.

He looked around at the rundown buildings set in the middle of the woods, far from any real civilization and anyone he knew, and thought to himself,  _ I don’t want to be here. _

Without any hesitation, he broke away from the group and walked toward the lake he could see in the distance. He hadn’t ever seen one before; it’d be nice to mess around on the shore with no one bothering him.

Max took five steps before a hand grabbed the back of his shirt and lifted him in the air.

“Whoa there, partner! We’re not visiting the lake yet!” someone yelled at him. “We need to get through the  _ or-i-en-tation  _ first!”

They said the word  _ orientation  _ like Max wouldn’t know what it meant. He  _ didn’t  _ know what it meant, but he was offended nonetheless. So he shoved an elbow back as hard as he could and hit their face.

The person screamed and dropped Max. He landed on his hands and knees, scrambled up and tried to run, but his shirt collar was grabbed again, and he wasn’t stupid enough to try and choke himself to get away.

“Let me  _ go!”  _ he yelled, flailing his arms.

“No can do, kiddo, we gotta get to the dining hall pronto, and here at Camp Campbell we believe in the words  _ no camper left behind.” _

Max clenched his fists to his side and raised his head to see whatever overgrown chirpy squirrel caught him. It was a man with startlingly red hair and a smile about as bright and real as an LED light. Max immediately started to hate him.

“I don’t  _ wanna  _ go there,” he said. The man looked as remorseful as someone could while toting around a discount grin.

“Hey now,” he told Max apologetically, “later we’ll all get to go to the lake _ together! _ Think about how much  _ funner  _ it’s going to be with all your friends!”

Max crossed his arms and angrily mumbled, “They’re not my friends.”

“Well, they will be soon!”

And with that, Max was dragged to the dining hall to meet his doom.

—

His doom came in the name of  _ David.  _ He decided that he hated David more than anyone at the camp.

There was also another counselor named Gwen, but Max didn’t mind her so much. She seemed as irritated with David’s happy-go-lucky attitude as he was. She was cool.

The thing about David, though, was that he was fake; his cheerful, unrelenting demeanor, his excitement for literally every activity—it just couldn’t be real. Max refused to believe it. He was six, and while  _ he  _ knew that was plenty old enough, everyone always assumed that was “too young” for most anything, and yet despite him being  _ “too young”  _ he still knew that David’s attitude was—to put in words he would soon know—complete and utter bullshit.

So on that first day, as David was excitedly yelling at them all about how much  _ fun  _ they’re going to have and how they’re all  _ such great friends already,  _ Max swore to himself that he was going to make David  _ crumble. _

All he had to do was make as much a nuisance of himself as possible until David’s facade cracked, and everyone could see how fake he was. It was the perfect, foolproof plan, and Max was sure that it would work in the way it hadn’t with his parents.

(At home, he’d taken to acting out—throwing food, neglecting schoolwork, yelling at anyone and everything—and his parents only noticed long enough to send him to his room.

It would, he hoped, work better at camp.)

When the time came for Max to introduce himself in front of everyone, he simply crossed his arms and said, “No.”

The other kids in the room weren’t paying attention, having already introduced themselves, but Max didn’t care about them. He was staring directly at David to show that he meant war.

David took it in exactly the wrong way.

“Aw, are you too shy?” he cooed, clasping his hands together. “That’s perfectly fine! How about you come over here so you can whisper your name in my ear, and I can introduce you to everyone instead!”

Max gritted his teeth, stomped his foot, and yelled,  _ “No!” _

David frowned in thought. It only took a moment for him to decide what the  _ “real”  _ problem was, because he soon brightened up again and said, “Oh, don’t worry, I know I look really tall but I’m not actually scary at all! I promise I don’t bite! But if you want to go to Gwen instead...”

Gwen slapped her face and groaned.

“Jesus, David,” she said, “he’s not scared, he’s just trying to be difficult.”

The camp man scrunched his eyebrows together, confused and not knowing how to handle the situation. Max felt vindicated. Clearly his plan was going to work easier than he thought.

“I... guess I can just get the attendance sheet?” David proposed. “He’s the last one to introduce! It shouldn’t be hard to find him on there.”

Max’s good mood dropped. He stared in betrayed shock as David procured a clipboard, skimming through the two pages until he found what he was looking for.

“Alright, everyone,” David said, “our last camper to be introduced today is...” He paused, waiting for something.  _ “Iiiiiiiiiissssss...” _

Gwen rolled her eyes and started doing a drumroll on her thigh.

“MAX! Say hi to Max, kids!”

The other kids, none of whom Max paid any attention to when they introduced themselves, didn’t react. They stared ahead in a bored daze, waiting for something interesting to happen. Max could relate.

He didn’t really have anything against these other people, he decided. Just  _ David. _

When they were being lead around the camp, Max pushed down the tents. David’s eye twitched, but he only said,  _ “Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.” _

When they were doing their first camp activity, Max took the string they were using for friendship bracelets and cocooned someone in a coffin of thread. David got out a pair of scissors and complimented him on his quick learning.

When they were learning to pitch tents—none of the kids were happy with Max at that point, since it was his fault they had to learn in the first place—he managed to destroy three of them before David got the hint that the small child should probably not be trusted. David dug through the attic and procured two extra tents, one of them large enough to house four students instead of two. He made Max help him set them up, and stopped Max when he tried to sabotage them again, saying, “Oh, no, it goes like  _ this,  _ Max.”

And he did all that with a large, radiant smile. There was rarely a hint of frustration or impatience with Max. He didn’t even seem to know that Max was purposefully trying to mess everything up.

That revelation—that maybe David just needed to figure out that Max was being terrible on  _ purpose— _ came to him on the third day, as Max was leaning over the side of a canoe, trying to get in the water. David had a strong grip on his shirt collar (his yellow shirt, the camp shirt he was forced to wear) so it wasn’t going well.

“Max,” David said patiently, “it’s  _ canoe  _ time, not  _ swim  _ time! Swim time isn’t until week two!”

Max glared at him. He was forced to be paired with one of the adults because he was the youngest- the other kids were lucky enough to get away with little to no supervision. And Gwen, luckiest of them all, got to chill on the beach with a pair of sunglasses and a trashy book.

David thought that Max was just a confused six-year-old. That was a problem.

Max leaned back into his seat, and David let go with a relieved sigh, thinking he got his point across. Instead, Max grabbed the sides of the canoe, and staring blankly at David, started rocking it, back and forth.

David gulped nervously and said, “Now, Max, I know this may  _ seem  _ fun, but it’s actually very dangerous because you might tip the boat over. So that means you should stop.”

Max doubled his efforts. He was willing to sacrifice himself if he could take David down with him.

“Ha, wow, okay, that’s exactly what you shouldn’t do, how about we just-”

And David grabbed him. Again. His plan was foiled. 

He was set right in front of the man like one would set down a heavy bag of groceries- a little roughly and with much relief. Then came the lecture.

Max didn’t listen to any of it. He only fumed at lost opportunities. But when David made a particularly large gesture with his hands, setting him slightly off balance in his seat, Max realized he could do something else.

So with all his strength, he shoved David off of the canoe.

David toppled off with a yelp and landed in the water with a large splash, getting Max wet. He surfaced quickly and sputtered  _ “MAX!”  _ very indignantly.

Max, naturally, pointed a finger at him and started laughing. Loudly.

The canoeing lesson was cut short for the day. When David surfaced from the lake, he looked like a sad cat that got too curious about a bathtub and was inevitably disappointed. Gwen pulled him away from the group; Max was too far to hear what they said, but he was so satisfied with his results he didn’t care, even though it looked like a very heated conversation.

When they came to some sort of agreement—an agreement only on Gwen’s part, if the unsatisfied look on David’s face was any indication—she pushed him away and called for everyone to follow her back to the dining hall. Max moved to go with them, but was stopped by an arm across his chest.

He looked up, and there was David, in all his downtrodden waterlogged glory. He rolled his eyes. There was, inevitably, going to be some lecture on how to be the best camper, or canoe safety, or how he should talk about his homesickness instead of acting on it, or whatever.

“Max,” David said softly. He mentally prepared himself for the barrage of useless information he was going to get.

“It has come to my attention that. You, uh. Have been acting... a little out of hand.”

Yeah, Max thought bitterly, and he had to have  _ Gwen  _ point it out to him, since David was so determined to act all cheerful and pretend nothing bad was going on.

“So Gwen and I, together, in a conversation where we mutually agreed-” what was David even saying, seriously, “-decided that you are going to be heavily restricted in the activities you are allowed to participate in, and for the activities you  _ are  _ allowed to be involved in you will need either me or Gwen to partner up with you.”

Max stared at him blankly. He didn’t understand most of what David said, partially because he didn’t really know what  _ “mutually agreed”  _ or  _ “restricted”  _ meant, partially because David’s voice lost most emotion, as if he was just repeating what he was told to, like a robot.

_ “And,”  _ David finished, “you won’t be allowed anywhere near the forest or the lake from now on. You’ll have to stay with the Quartermaster those days.”

Now  _ that  _ Max understood.

Tears pricked in his eyes and his face scrunched up, and he remembered the first day he was here, when he just wanted to go home and be alone, where he didn’t have to learn anything new with adults he had no idea what to do with, when he looked in the distance and saw the lake and wanted to sit by it and look at the water because he’d never done that before.

David put a hand on his shoulder- to comfort him, to lead him away, he didn’t know, but he shook it off and bolted down the beach, his face was wet and he was sad devastated _angry_ that David would take this away from him. Max knew he deserved his punishment; he all but asked for it, really. But he assumed it would get him some half-hearted reprimand and a push to do more activities to avoid bothering the adults. Get sent to stay in his tent for a day, at worst.

Max stopped running when his legs got too wobbly, and he fell ungracefully on his butt. He panted and he felt kind of dizzy but at least he was sitting next to the lake looking at the sunset. Alone.

Just like he wanted.

They probably wouldn’t let him go back there again.

The sand shifted behind him. Max sniffled and roughly rubbed his sleeve against his face.

“Go away,” he said.

David ignored him and crouched. He put a hand on his shoulder. David always did that; Max wondered what he thought a stupid little shoulder pat was going to do. Comfort him? Get him to like him? Stupid.

“We need to go back with the others,” David said.

“Go  _ away,”  _ Max told him.

“I can’t leave you here alone, Max,” David said.

Max brought his knees to his chest and shoved his face in them. The hand started rubbing his back. It was like David was trying to bribe him with affection, or something. Stupid.

_ “Go away,”  _ Max whispered, and he didn’t even know if David heard that time.

They stayed until the sun went down.

2.

Another summer, and Max is, for the third time in a row, sent to Camp Campbell to get out of his parents’ faces. He was becoming a sort of unwilling expert on the place.

He looked out the window of the bus with the affectation of a forty year old man getting sent to prison for the rest of his life and regretting the people he’s left behind and the actions he took to get there. What could he have done different, he wondered. He didn’t know.

The bus stopped, and the Quartermaster grunted something as he opened the door. Max was the first one off because he learned that sitting at the back of the bus only gets you the worst tent.

(Return campers were allowed to skip the orientation and go straight to settling in- so far, that was only Max and two other kids, and the two other kids tended to stick together and get the best tent for themselves. Max was determined to beat them that year.)

Among other things he learned was this:

-The food is not to be trusted, as with anything else the Quartermaster was involved in.   
-David and Gwen take turns checking in on the campers after the scheduled bedtime, and Gwen tends to try and finish it as fast as possible, which means that she’ll look at a pile of pillows under a blanket and think it’s a kid. Those were the best nights to sneak out.   
-The two other kids that returned to camp every year were named Meredith and Rajeev and they were pretty cool. Usually. Depending on the day.   
-Despite all common sense, David really was that fucking happy. All the time. Sometimes, his temper would get the best of him and he’d lash out, but overall he just smiled. And smiled.

It took two years for Max to realise that, no, it wasn’t some stupid, overblown act. No matter how hard he tried, there was no forcing David to shed his cheerful mask and show the world what kind of person he really was, because it wasn’t a mask. Sometimes he’d lose his temper, but he always bounced back quickly since apparently a positive attitude means so much to him.

So, because of that, Max had no idea what he was going to do that year.

The past years were dedicated to trying to get David to admit that he was a hack and he actually hated children. Now that he knows the truth, that there is no secret to reveal, what was the point anymore? Was it really worth it to make David’s life hell, if it would amount to nothing?

(That was another thing Max had learned at camp: Swear Words. Gwen never bothered to police her language around children, much to David’s consternation, and it didn’t take long for Max to have as much a mouth as her.)

Max speed walked towards the tent area. He’d have ran, but he knew for a fact that Meredith would refuse to act like she made any effort to do things, and Rajeev wouldn’t go on by himself. Getting the tent he wanted was a cinch.

He set his suitcase underneath the cot and grabbed the whiteboard on top, then wrote “MAX’S TENT- YOU FUCKERS BETTER LEAVE ME ALONE” and hung it outside. Meredith and Rajeev were just arriving, and when they saw him, they groaned.

_ “Dude,”  _ Rajeev said.

“Whatever,” Meredith said, flipping her hair. It barely reached past her ears so it wasn’t particularly effective. “That tent is, like, old news anyway.”

“Last year you said that this was the best tent and everyone else was missing out,” Max told her.

_ “Pff,” _ said Meredith. “They’re all the same. It doesn’t even matter.”

“Okay, Meredith,” Max said.

“Actually,” she said, “I’m going by Mer now. It’s a nickname. Meredith is lame.”

“Mare?”

“No,  _ Mer.” _

“It won’t last,” Max predicted.

Meredith ignored him and went to the tent right next to his. Rajeev paused, waved at Max, and followed.

And with that, he would finally get peace and quiet for the next two hours it took for David to get through his in depth tour of the camp with the newbies. Ah, yes, he thought, the best time of the summer, nothing can make this go wrong, he can just lay down, relax, and-

_ “Max!”  _ David yelled in the distance.

“Are you  _ fucking  _ kidding me,” Max said.

He turned around and sure enough, there was David, running toward him with a smile on his face. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Meredith and Rajeev exit their tent with a small whiteboard. The moment they saw David, they looked at each other and quietly went back inside, making the wise decision to hang up their sign later.

David slowed to a stop, panting, still wearing a huge grin.

“Glad I caught you, Max!” he said. “Come on, I left Gwen to handle things for the moment, but, well, she always skips the part about the forest ecosystem so-”

“Wait,” Max said, “you are  _ not  _ taking me back to the  _ or-i-entation.”  _

David frowned and put his fists on his hips. “Well, I can’t leave you here.”

“Why not?” he asked. “You let me stay here  _ last  _ year. I already went through the whole welcome schtick.”

“Last year you ate all the candy you smuggled in at once and got sick,” David said.

Max crossed his arms. “I’m not that person anymore. I’ve grown. And wait- why aren’t you bringing Meredith and Rajeev too?”

From inside their tent, Meredith yelled,  _ “It’s Mer now!” _

“They’re twelve,” David answered. “I trust that they won’t immediately eat all of their illegally brought candy.”

“This is  _ so unfair.” _

David ignored him and, rightfully guessing that Max would never go with him willingly, picked him up and tucked him under his arm like a football. Max stubbornly kept his arms crossed.

He wondered how he ever assumed that there would be no reason to torture David. It’d clearly been too long since he last saw him.

For the next two hours, Max sat through pure agony. He had to listen to David talk about  _ all the different kinds of trees at Camp Campbell,  _ and how  _ you shouldn’t go into the forest alone because there are bears, no this is not a joke there are literally bears please don’t go in there by yourself. _

Stupid. Boring. Max would make him pay.

The next two weeks passed by predictably: Max did what he always did—that is, exist in apathy until he was forced to do a camp activity, which he would then attempt to ruin—and David did what  _ he  _ always did—try to act as if everything was fine and everyone was happy.

But one day, as Max was drinking his morning coffee, his routine was interrupted.

His arm was grabbed, he dropped his mug, and he opened his mouth to scream, until he heard David’s voice.

“Let’s go, Max!” he said. “Don’t want to be late for camp today!”

Max decided to scream twice as loud.

David winced and covered his ear with his free hand.

“Max, please-”

“Let  _ go  _ of me!” he yelled, scratching at David’s arm and trying to yank his own away. “I’m not going to learn about the environment! You can’t make me!”

“No, it’s-”

_ “AAAAAAAHHHHH!” _

“Max-”

“You made me drop my coffee!”

_ “Max!” _

Max stopped and looked up at David. He was frowning, rubbing his head, and he seemed  _ very  _ tired.

“It’s your camp activity day, Max,” David said. “Gwen is taking the others for a hike, and  _ we  _ are going to the dining hall.”

“Why?” Max asked suspiciously. “What’s my camp  _ this  _ year? ‘Meditation?’ ‘Pray the humanity away?’ ‘Mind control your child into being the perfect robot?’”

“Well, first off, I think you need to spend a little less time with Gwen. Second, you’ll find out when we get there.”

Max grumbled, but stopped resisting. He’d run if David let go of his arm, but generally, his camps tended to finish quickly, due to his parents writing literally whatever they wanted on the camp form. Last year he only had to balance a textbook on his head for five minutes.

It will be over with soon, Max reassured himself. And if it took too long, he’d find a way to get out of it.

They reached the dining hall, and David only paused long enough to shut the doors and lock them.

Shit, Max thought.

David sit him down at one of the tables and walked to the other side. From underneath the bench, he pulled out a backpack, unzipped it, and overturned the contents in front of them.

Out tumbled three skeins of yarn and two pairs of knitting needles.

_ Shit,  _ Max thought.

“Knitting can be a bit difficult, so I’ll start off the row for you,” David said. “Then, once you get the hang of it, I’ll show you how to start  _ new  _ rows-”

“No,” Max said.

“It’s easy once you figure it out!” David pleaded- actually  _ pleaded,  _ with his palms together in front of his chest and eyes teary for effect. “Well,” he amended, “there’s always new techniques to learn, and knitting itself can be difficult to master, so I’m not sure if it can be called  _ easy,  _ but I promise you it’s fun!”

“No, listen,” Max said, “I don’t care how you paint it. I am  _ not  _ knitting. It’s- it’s stupid.”

“You call everything stupid,” David pointed out.

“That’s because everything is stupid and there’s no good in the world,” Max said.

“Max, please,” he said. “Just  _ try  _ it? For ten minutes, at the very least.”

Max hesitated, grumbled, stared at the table and kicked his feet and grudgingly said,  _ “Fine.” _

David beamed at him and picked up a pair of knitting needles. “First, you have to hold the needles like this,” he grabbed Max’s hands and closed them around the needles, adjusting until his grip was right, “and you take the yarn with your- are you right handed? Take it with your left hand, wrap it around like this-”

And he patiently walked Max through the process, and whenever Max lost his temper and tried throwing the needles he’d grab them out of his hands and wait until he was ready to start again. When Max was able to get a rhythm going—able to reach the end of the row and start a new one with relative ease, though it was a little slow going—David picked up his own knitting needles and started silently knitting along.

An hour and a half later, Max was jolted out of his reverie when the rest of the camp returned from their hike, a conglomeration of loud footsteps dampened by dirt and conversation and the clang of keychains on backpacks. He looked down at his hands, where the start of a scarf rested on the table. It was bunched up and there were some parts where he lost a stitch or held the yarn too loosely, but it was there.

“What?” he asked incredulously.

The noise from outside got louder, and Max realized that they were coming in for lunch. He threw his scarf at David with a panicked scream and scrambled off the bench to run for the cafeteria, where the Quartermaster was already setting out food. The door thumped as someone tried to open it, and Max abruptly remembered that David locked it when they came in.

“I’ll be there in a sec!” David yelled, stuffing all the knitting items back in the bag. The door continued to thump, and the people outside started yelling angrily. By the time it was opened and everyone started rushing in, Max was standing in line to get food, inspecting his fingernails, no funny business here, no siree.

“Ugh,” Rajeev said from behind him, “why’d  _ you  _ get to skip the hike? Gwen just kept on pointing out trees. She just pointed at them and said ‘and that’s a tree.’ I don’t think she knows anything about nature.”

“Did you  _ want  _ to learn about nature?”

“No, but that’s not the point.”

Max rolled his eyes as Rajeev complained about the quality of care they were given.

At least, he thought, he’d never have to knit again.

—

It was late, and Max couldn’t sleep, which was par for the course. Lucky for him, it was a Tuesday- Gwen was supposed to be the one checking to make sure the campers were sleeping.

So he took all his pillows, shoved them under his blanket, and walked off to the lake.

He always liked the lake. It was overgrown with algae so it had a green tinge and almost no fish, but the waves still lapped on the shore and against the dock and the sand was soft and warm. Max liked to lay down and stare at the sky, even though it was a pain to get the sand out of his hair later.

This far away from town, the stars were numerous and bright. Sometimes David tried to teach them about constellations; Max tried not to pay attention, but after a couple years, he knew how to pick out a few anyway.

The Big Dipper was easy. The Little Dipper was dimmer, but he could find it too. Leo looked more like a mouse than a lion. Cassiopeia was just a  _ w.  _ The North Star, Orion’s Belt—it was soothing to list them, and Max could feel himself nodding off, listening to the waves and digging his fingers into the sand-

A branch snapped.

Max darted up.

“Max?”

Emerging from the trees was David, who seemed to have made a habit of spontaneously appearing  _ exactly  _ when Max didn’t want him to.

_ “There  _ you are,” he said, relieved. “I got worried when I couldn’t find you in your tent! Remember, Max, curfew is at nine- you can’t go wandering around this late.”

Max rolled his eyes and slumped back against the sand.

“Max?” David said, cautiously stepping closer. “Max, we need to get back to the tents.”

_ “Uuuuuuugggghh,”  _ Max said. Above him, David stopped and placed his hands on his hips.

“Now, Max, I know that I cut you some slack every now and then, but I can’t just leave you here! So get up, get moving, and let’s go to bed!”

He groaned again but started to stand. Very slowly. David tapped his foot impatiently. Max moved slower.

Getting back to his tent was a hassle with his refusal to walk at a reasonable pace, but eventually they reached their destination, and they both stopped.

“You can go now,” Max said after waiting to see if David would leave on his own.

“Ah,” David responded. “Well, actually, before I leave-”

Max sighed. Loudly.

“Go  _ away,  _ David,” he said. “I don’t want you here. Leave me alone.”

David hesitated, but apparently came to a decision, saying a hasty,  _ “Goodnight,”  _ before skittering off to bed.

He unzipped the flap to his tent and walked inside. It was almost exactly how he left it, except for the blanket that was flipped down to reveal his fairly large pillow collection. Max returned them to their usual places in his bed, and crouched down to get his Gameboy Advance SP from its hiding place under the mattress, ready to hunker down for a sleepless night.

Instead, he encountered a bag.

Curiously, Max pulled it out. It wasn’t his, and he didn’t know how it got there. He unzipped it and peeked inside.

The first thing he saw was a shitty looking scarf.

It was bunched up too tight in some places, loose enough to see holes in others, made out of blue and purple yarn and still with knitting needles sticking out the end.

This was the scarf he was making earlier. David must have left it, along with all the other yarn.

Max picked it out and sat of his bed, telling himself that it was only because he had nothing else to do, he didn’t  _ really  _ want to knit, it was just better than playing that Spongebob game for the millionth time.

In the morning, David found him asleep, knitting needles still in hand.

3.

“This way’s the kitchen, over there’s the dining table—not enough space for a full on dining room, but you know what, with just the two of us that shouldn’t matter—down that hallway is the bathroom and office and upstairs-”

David continued yammering as he showed Max around, and Max heard none of it. He shifted the duffel bag higher up on his shoulder. The house smelled sterile; David probably wiped everything down for Max’s arrival.

They walked upstairs, Max running his hand over the railing, David talking about the fluting on the wood or something. There was a door at the end of the hallway. They stopped in front of it.

Max reached out for the doorknob, vaguely recognizing that it was supposed to be where he would sleep, when he caught the last of David’s speech.

“-and I’m  _ sure  _ you’ll be happy here!”

Max slammed the door in his face.

—

The last summer, he’d been sent to Camp Campbell as usual. It was, at the time, the best summer so far.

Nurf and Ered had both aged out by that point—he’d maybe kinda missed Ered a little, if only because she was the one constant at camp besides the adults, but it was a bit of a relief to not have to always watch his back on his designated bullying days. But, at twelve, he was the second oldest kid, and he had Neil and Nikki, and Preston and Harrison were still there, and there was a new kid named Audrey who was seven and thought Max was the coolest kid ever.

David and Gwen were, as always, counselors. He didn’t even mind; Max wouldn’t admit this to anyone but he kind of started to like them. Not hate them. He didn’t go out of his way to try and annoy them, at least, and as far as he was concerned they were a vast improvement to his own parents.

He actually  _ looked forward  _ to staying at Camp Campbell. It started to feel more like home than his actual house did.

Then the summer ended, and they had to go home.

As it happened every year, all the other kids got picked up first. David, used to this, invited Max inside the counselor’s cabin for a late lunch. They talked, got along, didn’t fight or get angry, Max might have smiled once- and even though he knew it was going to end soon he still couldn’t help but feel a little happy to be there.

But they sat, and waited, and it was only after the Quartermaster told them that he was leaving and they both needed to get a life that they might have thought something was wrong.

David called Max’s mom. Then he called Max’s dad. Then he called both of their workplaces, and after they both said that they were gone for the day he called their personal phones again.

No answer.

Max drank his hot chocolate silently.

Two weeks later, a few different conversations with the police, and an exchange of papers led him to his current predicament, which was that his parents were charged with child neglect and David offered to foster him.

For the time being.

That was the part that stuck in Max’s mind.

He wasn’t unhappy with how he lived before. Maybe when he was younger he wanted his parents’ attention, or love, whatever, but he knew how to take care of himself and he didn’t even care about them anymore. He started to care about school, he had friends, and every summer he went back to Camp Campbell, which wasn’t the worst place to be. He got used to being lonely when his parents left for days on end, got used to being hungry when they misjudged the amount of food he needed and had to deal with school lunches. It wasn’t a bad situation.

Max didn’t know what to expect from David.

He didn’t know what his room looked like, though he had been there for at least five minutes. He spent that time flopped face-first on his bed. The sheets smelled like flowers, and were about as soft.

When he felt like he could handle it, he pushed himself up.

The room was fairly small, with yellow walls and a large window opposite the door. There were curtains, but they were so thin and translucent that light shined through anyway, making the atmosphere needlessly cheery. Across from the bed sat a wood desk, complete with a lamp and a chair.

Max looked down. The bed sheets were floral. The carpet was a dark beige. His suitcase stood innocuously next to the door.

This was a guest room. Max couldn’t fathom changing it to something that was his.

_ “I can foster him for the time being,”  _ he heard David say in his head.

This room would probably stay the guest room even after he left.

Max walked over to his suitcase and unzipped the front pocket to pull out his 3DS. He sat against the door, and lost three Pokemon battles before he realized that he wouldn’t be able to concentrate anytime soon.

He dropped his hands. His DS thumped softly on the carpet.

Why couldn’t his parents just have remembered him that  _ one  _ time?

He didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to think. His brain was swirling around the words  _ for the time being,  _ he was stuck in a guest room and his parents couldn’t even remember their child existed until it got them in jail.

Max put away his DS. From another pocket, he pulled out yarn and needles.

He’d gotten better at knitting over the years. It was calming and it took his mind off things enough for him to relax. He was in a sweater mood at the moment, even though it wouldn’t be cold enough to wear them for a while.

He knitted. His head grew hazy. The trick with sweaters is that you had to make them a bit larger than they had to be, since they shrank in the wash. Once he made socks for Audrey, the kid who kept following around last summer. She thought the size of the socks were ridiculous and laughed for an unnecessarily long time. He kind of missed her.

The yarn was a gradient green, going from light to dark to light again. Green was nice. Max liked the color green more than he used to.

There were still thoughts niggling on the back of his mind. They went away when he trashed the green yarn and went with blue.

Just blue, no purple. Purple probably wouldn’t have helped either.

A few hours passed, and Max jumped when the door thudded on his back.

“Dinner, Max,” David said after he finished knocking. Max didn’t move. Eventually, David left.

He silently put the yarn away, stood up, and opened the door. His bare feet were silent on the polished wood floor of the hallway, and he stayed close to the wall when going down the stairs in case one of them was prone to creaking. David was sitting at the kitchen table, quietly eating macaroni and cheese. Across from him was another bowl.

Max hesitated. His parents had rarely cooked dinner for him, especially since they realized that he learned how to cook himself. He couldn’t get used to this. He wasn’t going to be with David forever.

Yet he still walked over and sat in the chair. David seemed happy to see him.

This wasn’t going to last, Max had to remind himself.

David greeted him happily, asked how he was feeling, backtracked and started talking about trees when he realized that was a loaded question.

This wasn’t going to last.

When Max finished his macaroni, David asked if he wanted more.

It couldn’t last.

“So,” David said awkwardly once he refilled their bowls. “We actually have to talk about something.”

Max stabbed his noodles.

“When do you want to start school?” David asked.

Max aggressively chewed his food, not deigning him with an answer.

“You could start next week,” David said, “which, since it’s Friday, is pretty soon from now, but if you need more time to get used to-”

“Next week is fine,” Max said. It was the first thing he said all day.

“Alright, sounds good,” David said.

They finished their food. David put the dishes in the sink. Max stood to walk back to the guest room.

“Goodnight,” David said.

This would not last, Max told himself as he was falling asleep that night.

—

School was... fine.

It was a new school, so none of his friends were there, but the other kids were fine enough. He made acquaintances. The teacher never called on him to answer. Max wondered if David told her about his  _ “situation.” _

Every day, after school, David was home. He’d be playing guitar, or baking cookies, or watching TV, or reading- whatever it was, he’d stop and welcome Max home and ask him about his day. After a month, Max asked him if he had a job. David told him that he did, and he was lucky enough that it matched with Max’s school hours.

In November, Max went up to his room after school, ignoring David’s usual,  _ “Hey Max! How was your day?”  _ to collapse on his bed. The walls were still yellow, the floor was still beige, but the sheets were changed to Batman covers and there were a few posters taped tackily on the walls. His suitcase was under the bed, its contents unpacked.

It didn’t look too much like a guest bedroom anymore. He hadn’t even been there for three months. It should’ve scared him, how comfortable he’d gotten.

The other day, David said something with the words, “when you graduate high school.”  Max didn’t hear the rest of what he said; David thought he’d be there for  _ years.  _ Maybe he expected Max to move out after he graduated, but it kind of made him hope.

Maybe, Max told himself nearly three months after living there, this wasn’t as temporary as he thought.

The next day, he went to school. Some kids asked him if he wanted to play wall ball with them at recess. He said sure.

David got him a phone so he could text Neil and Nikki. The walls in his room were painted blue, almost the same shade as his old hoodie. Whenever he thought too much about his parents, he could pull out whatever knitting project he had on hand and work on it until David called him for dinner.

Maybe this could last, Max told himself.

One day, in December, Max came home from school. He threw his backpack on the couch and paused.

David hadn’t greeted him.

Max very carefully did not react. He walked to the kitchen, getting a glass of water when he saw that David wasn’t there. He looked in the office, pretending he lost a paper even when it was empty. There was no one in the bathroom.

He walked upstairs, and after seeing that David wasn’t there either, decided that he actually wanted to work on his homework instead of hanging out in the guest room and went back to where he left his backpack.

Apparently, David wasn’t home.

That was fine. This was fine. Max was used to arriving to an empty house. He shouldn’t care. He shouldn’t care.

He shouldn’t have gotten used to this, Max told himself, it was stupid to assume David would always be there.

_ “I can foster him for the time being,”  _ he heard for the first time in a while. He tried to bury himself in math homework. David would usually help him if he had trouble.

This wouldn’t have been able to last, he told himself.

Max was in the middle of his english homework when he heard the door to the backyard open. David stepped inside, covered in dirt, and brightened with a grin when he saw Max sitting on the couch.

“Oh, hey Max!” he said. “I didn’t realize you were home! I guess I lost track of time- gardening can be so hypnotizing, you know? But hey, got all the winter plants taken care of! They’ll probably start sprouting soon enough, and man, I can’t  _ wait  _ for them to bloom-”

Max stood up without a word and walked away, leaving his things behind.

“Max?” David said worriedly, as if just now figuring out that something might have been wrong. “Are you alright? Did something happen at school today?”

Max stomped up the stairs. He slammed his door. David didn’t follow.

A couple hours later, halfway through a yellow scarf, there was a knock on the door.

“Dinner’s done,” David said.

Max didn’t answer. David knocked again.

“Are you coming?” he asked. Max stayed silent. David didn’t leave.

“Do you need to talk about something?” he said. “Remember, I’m here for-”

“Go away,” Max told him.

“If it’s something I did, then-”

“Go  _ away!”  _ he yelled.

For a moment, there was silence. Then footsteps going toward the stairs. Max picked up his knitting needles again.

He shouldn’t have gotten so comfortable, he told himself, he shouldn’t have been so stupid.

The yellow scarf, when he was done, was nearly as bad as his first.

4.

Max’s door opened, and in walked in David. Max screeched.

“Go away!” he yelled, scrambling off his bed to rush toward David.

“I just wanted to ask-”

“No!” Max tried shoving David out the door. At fourteen, he was nearly to David’s shoulder, though scrawnier than ever. David was probably letting himself get hustled out.

“Okay, Max, have fu-”

The door slammed in his face.

“You didn’t have to be  _ that  _ mean,” Nikki said. She coughed into her elbow. According to her, David’s house in general was better than most urban civilizations, but she still got a cold whenever she left her cabin in the woods, where she lived with her dad.

“Listen, Nikki,” Max said, “I am being  _ very nice  _ by letting you design me a- a goddamn  _ fursona.”  _ He said the words like a curse. “I am  _ not  _ letting Dad see what we’re doing in here.”

Nikki smirked evilly. Max eyed her.

“What?” he said suspiciously.

“Nothing,” Nikki sang, and went back to her sketchbook. She was drawing a very fluffy black cat wearing a blue hoodie. It was sitting next to an anxious owl and a wolf, which looked like it wanted to eat them both.

They were both silent.

“Okay, seriously,  _ what?”  _ Max asked. “What are you hiding? And fuck you no version of me is that fluffy.”

_ “Nothing,”  _ Nikki insisted, drawing the cat fluffier just to spite him. “But, uh, if you could ask your  _ dad  _ if he could make cookies that’d be cool.” She drew out the word “dad” mockingly. Max made a face at her.

“David is  _ not  _ my dad,” he insisted.

“Alright,” Nikki said unconvincingly.

“He’s not.”

“Okay.”

“He’s stupid and I hate him.”

“If you say so.”

Max looked like he wanted to argue more, but gave up and went downstairs to tell David to make them cookies. 

After he left, Nikki pulled out her phone and texted Neil to make fun of him for choosing to finish his science fair project instead of hanging out with them.

5.

As it turned out, graduating high school was a fairly boring affair.

Most of it was sitting. Underneath his robes Max wore a nice pair of slacks and a blue button up shirt, complete with a shiny pair of loafers that he would never wear again. 

The senior president was taking her sweet time calling out names. A couple kids slowed down the affair by tripping on stage. He would’ve played games on his phone if David hadn’t taken it away before the ceremony started.

Finally, his row stood to go. They had to walk to the backstage area, and go through curtains that a teacher would hold open for each person. It was all very convoluted. Max just wanted to get it over with.

His name was called, the teacher opened the curtains for him, and she dropped them too early so his hat nearly fell off- luckily he had to use bobby pins to keep it on, so it was secure.

The moment he stepped on stage, he could hear a  _ lot  _ of shouting. His eyes followed the sound to the middle of the crowd, and there sat everyone he cared about.

Neil was conservative about his cheering, but he looked happy enough. He graduated the previous year so he had to travel from college to come to his graduation, and Max told him not to bother, but Neil just said,  _ “Fuck you, you came to my graduation and now I have to return the favor.” _

Beside him, Nikki was howling. Literally howling. She probably learned it from the wolves she managed to befriend (and he still didn’t know how the fuck she did that, though the same could be said for most of the things she did). She was jumping up and down and waving her arms wildly. The parents next to her looked fearful for their lives.

And, loudest of them all, David. He was screaming his heart out, saying things like  _ “Max I’m so proud of you!”  _ and  _ “I’m so happy you made it this far!”  _ There were tears on his face, and Gwen, standing beside him, seemed embarrassed on his behalf, but she still smiled and flashed Max a thumbs up.

Max smiled back and stepped forward to take his diploma.

—

Later the five of them were at a restaurant, talking and laughing, trading congratulations and wondering about the future.

David turned to him, said something, clapped him on the back, went back to conversing with Gwen.

It didn’t feel real.

How did Max get here?

He was in a four star restaurant with what was essentially his family, he didn’t imagine a black pit in his future, he could barely remember when he last felt lonely for a long period of time.

Max was  _ happy,  _ and so were the people around him. This was the life he couldn’t fathom when he was living with his parents.

His parents were out and about these days, he knew. Sometimes, Max was afraid that they’d show up on his doorstep, demanding he come back with them. That he had a responsibility to them. That he had to love them, just because they  _ “raised”  _ him, even though they never loved him the way he needed.

Max stabbed a green bean and shoved it in his mouth. He hated green beans. It was a good distraction.

“How come green beans come with every steak dinner?” Max wondered out loud.

“You’ve gotta have  _ some  _ vegetables,” Neil said.

“Mashed potatoes are vegetables!” Nikki told them.

“I’m not sure if mashed potatoes count,” David said.

“If schools can say that french fries are vegetables,” Gwen said, “then mashed potatoes are vegetables.”

Their conversation devolved into complaints about the American education system. Max’s mouth hurt. He was still smiling. He wished no one noticed.

Max had hope for the future, and he wasn’t afraid to keep holding on to it.

—

They finished dinner, and Max grabbed the graduation robe he slung over the chair and stood to leave. Nikki and Neil stood with him; the three of them planned to burn his robe and hat in a fire and then go to some party Max was invited to. Gwen and David stayed behind to pay the bill.

“Have fun, kids,” Gwen said.

“Yeah!” David yelled. “Have fun, don’t drink, don’t do drugs, drive save, please be home by ten-”

“David, Max just graduated, I think he’s responsible enough to have a sleepover,” Gwen said.

“I mean, sure, but I get kind of worried, you know?”

_ “Alright,”  _ Max said, “I’m leaving, bye, have fun doing whatever it is you’re going to do-”

“We’re going to watch all the Shrek movies,” Gwen deadpanned.

“-and I did  _ not  _ need to know that ‘kay thanks see you later.”

While they were talking, Neil and Nikki went to stand by the door. Neil tapped his foot impatiently and pointedly gestured to his watch when Max looked over.

He gave one last wave and went to join them. Behind him he heard David yelp—presumably because Gwen elbowed him, as she was wont to do, though he couldn’t imagine what David did  _ this  _ time.

Max reached his friends. Together, they walked outside; it rained while they were in the restaurant, so the air was damp and it smelled like wet concrete. Hopefully the wood they were going to use to make a fire didn’t get too waterlogged.

Footsteps slapped behind them. Max turned around and there, unsurprisingly, was David.

For as long as he’d known him, David had a habit of running after him. It was weird. David always cared too much.

“Hey, Max,” David said, “before you leave, can we- uh, have a talk? Just you and me.”

Max paused, shrugged, and turned around to tell Nikki and Neil to wait for him in the car, only to see that they already left without him. Typical.

“Alright,” he said. “But soon we’re going to be ridiculously late instead of fashionably late, so make it quick.”

David fidgeted. He stuck his hands in his pockets, took them out, rested them on his hips before he rethought that and crossed his arms instead.

“You gonna talk anytime soon?” Max asked.

“Uh, yeah.” David cleared his throat. “Well, to start off, I just wanna tell you- you know I love you, right, Max? You’re- you’re family, to me. To Gwen too. And you always will be.”

Max’s eyes darted around, looking anywhere but David’s face. He settled them on the ground when it felt like moving them anymore would dislodge the tears.

“Yeah,” he said, voice rough. “I- yeah, I think I know. And- you’re, uh, you’re not half-bad, I guess.” He brought a fist up to his mouth and coughed. It didn’t help much.

David nodded affirmatively. “Right. Right. And I know you just graduated, and you’re already eighteen, but—I’ve been talking about this with Gwen, she says it’s a good idea—actually she said it would’ve been a good idea  _ years  _ ago, but I didn’t think you’d have been open to it then-”

“What are you saying, David?” Max asked.

“What I’m saying,” David said, “is that if you’d like, I would, uh- I want to adopt you. Officially.”

For a few seconds, Max didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. And when he opened his mouth to try and say something, all that came out was a croak.

Keeping his eyes from moving didn’t help in the end. Tears fell. He brought up an arm to roughly rub them away, and it caught on his nose too, covering his sleeve in snot. His dress shirt was probably ruined.

“I- I mean, it’s just an option,” David said nervously. “If you don’t like the idea, that’s- that’s fine, you’re family regardless, it’s your choi-”

“Shut up, David,” Max managed to say through the tears.  _ “God,  _ I’m just about to go to a party, why’d you have to bring this up  _ now?  _ Should’ve- should’ve waited until I got back home, when there weren’t other people around.” He sniffed.

“Sooooo,” David said, “is that a... yes? No?”

“You’re so fucking stupid,” Max said. “It’s a- okay, fine, I don’t care, adopt me or whatever, let’s just- talk about this later.”

“It sure looks like you care,” David pointed out.

“Go away, David,” Max said, without any real heat. “I’ll see you tomorrow. You can talk more about- about this then. Okay?”

David smiled. It was a bit different from his usual blinding grins, but no less brighter for it.

“Alright, Max.”

Max turned around and walked briskly to the car where his friends were waiting, ready to burn his graduation robes to make room for the future.

+1

David set the last of the boxes on the floor and wiped his hands on his pants.

“Well, I think that’s the last of them,” he said.

Max looked around at his college dorm room and nodded. It was fairly empty, but it wouldn’t be for long. He had a lot of shit to unpack. Hopefully his roommate wouldn’t mind.

Together, Max and David started the climb back down to the car.

“So,” David said, “what were you planning on majoring in? Do you have any plans for your career?”

A couple years ago, Max would’ve gotten broody and silent at questions like that, not being able to imagine a time where he’d actually go to college and have goals. He’d gotten better at that kind of thing, though.

“I don’t really have a specific major yet,” Max said, “but, uh, I actually kind of wanted to become a teacher.”

They reached the bottom of the stairs. David looked a bit surprised.

“Really?” he asked. “I didn’t think you’d like being around kids so much. You always acted more like Gwen whenever you came to help out at Camp Campbell.”

Max shrugged, put his hands in his jeans. “Yeah, well, I just kind of thought- when I was a kid, I wasn’t really subtle, you know? I mean. In retrospect, it was pretty obvious that my home life was kind of not great. And I was kinda thinking- I don’t  _ hate  _ kids, they can be pretty cool, and teachers are, like, taught signs of abuse in kids, but most of them don’t want to believe it actually happens so they either just don’t recognize it for what it is or they make rationalizations and the kid just keeps on living with their shitty family. So I thought- hey, I know what it can look like, I know how it can be—not for all of them, there’s different kinds of- you know—but.”

Max took a deep breath, not realizing until he stopped how much he needed air.

“Uh, yeah,” he said awkwardly. “That’s what I’m planning right now.”

David was smiling at him. He always smiled. For some reason, it wasn’t as annoying as it used to be, when he was six and miserable.

“Max,” David said. He hesitated, then grabbed Max in a full body hug.

“Max, I am  _ so proud of you.” _

It took barely a second for Max to return the hug. He pressed his face in David’s shoulder, not wanting to be seen crying. It was stupid for him to cry. David always said he was proud of Max, and he was pretty free with hugs, too. This shouldn’t have been any different.

But ever since David adopted him it felt like tears came easier. Max didn’t know if he cared much for that side effect.

Eventually, David let go, pretending not to notice Max vigorously wiping his face.

“Well,” he said, “guess I should probably leave you to unpack, huh? I’m sure if I stayed and hassled you any longer you’d just start telling me to  _ go away.”  _ David laughed like it was a joke.

“Uh, wait,” Max said. He clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, widened his stance like he was ready for a fight. In his mind, it kind of was.

“I know I never really, uh, say anything,” he said, “but I need to make sure- like, I know I usually come across as- not caring, or apathetic, or- hostile, but I-”

His eyes pricked. He was about to cry again. This just  _ has  _ to happen every time he tries to express any sort of strong positive emotion.

“I love you, and you’ve done so much for me, even when I hated you—or acted like I hated you, I don’t know—and you just. You mean a lot to me, Dad.”

In front of him, David was bawling. There would be no end to it for the next few hours, at least, but Max only had himself to blame.

He braced himself for one more comment.

“If you want,” he said, “you can stay for a bit longer, help me unpack my stuff. You don’t have to leave yet.”

Twelve years after they first met, David stepped forward to join Max.


End file.
